Bay County, Michigan - Chapter 2: The Aboriginal Period, 1905

ViRGix Forests, Trackless Swamps and Lake-Bound Prairies - "0-Sauk-e-non," THE "Land of the Sauks" - Indian Tribes and Chieftains - Manners, Customs AND Modes of Life of the Aborigines - The Overthrow of the Sauks by THE Confederated Tribes - The Indians as Found by the Pioneers - The Indians OF To-Day.

So came the auuinm, and passed, and the winter, - yet Gabriel came not; Blossomed the opening spring, and the notes of the robin and bkiebird Sounded sweet upon wold and in wood, yet Gabriel came not. But on the breath of the summer winds a rumor was wafted Sweeter than song of bird, or hue or odor of blossom. Far to the north and east, it said, in the Michigan forests, Gabriel had his lodge by the banks of the Saginaw River. And, with returning guides, that sought the lakes of the Huron, Saying a sad farewell, Evangeline went from the Ozark Mission. When over weary ways, by long and perilous marches, She had attained at length the depths of the Michigan forests Found she the hunter's lodge on the Saginaw deserted and fallen to ruin ! . - Adapted from Longfellow's Evangeline.

Shade of Evangeline! A spot far-famed, wlience comes mysterious legends of the red children of the forest! Scenes of which the poets have sung and the artists reveled ! Historic shores of lake and river, where emanate romantic traditions and soul-stirring reminiscences! But yesterday the veiled wilderness, beckoning to the explorer! To-day an equally attractive field for the scientist and the statistician ! Wooded shores, ribtoned by placid streams that bring melodious greetings from distant inland vales, stand guard over Lake Huron's most favored harbor! With the vision of a seer, the i)oet portrays the scene, and bemoans the tragedies of ages agone :

This is the forest primeval ; but where are the hearts that beneath it Leaped like the roe. when he hears in the woodland the voice of the huntsman? ******

1'nil\- this great country of ours has fewlocalities more blessed by Nature, and few indeed can offer as much in folk-lore and tradition, than the far-famed valley of the Satjinaw. Its very name is preonant with historic lore of an heroic people. The primitixe Indians called it "O-Sauk-e-non," nieanins^' the "J.and of the Sauks." Centuries ai^o, their exact number none can tell with precision, the Sauks, a warlike and powerful tribe of Indians, held undisputed sway oxer all the \ast and varied region comprised in what is now Eastern Michigan.

Tf we are to accept the scientist's theory of the prehistoric glacial and rainy periods, and the subse(|uent ni)heavals, that gave to our globe its present formation, we may readily believe that one of the very last spots in this vast region to rise alxive the level of the allpervading waters was this same \allcy of the Sauks or Saginaw.

The earliest explorers still found much of the valley a seemingly endless swamp, a tangle of primitive forest on its margin, alive with wild beasts of forest and prairie, with gamy myriads of the deep, and the winged hosts of this vast lake region. It must ha\c been infinitely more impenetrable at the time the Sauk nation made this valley their favorite hunting ground, and seat of their great tribe councils. This \-alley is to-day a paradise of fish and game, and it will require no great stretch of im.agination to picture to oneself the ideal living conditions presented here to the simplcliearled children of the wilderness. Wood for the camp-fire, water clear as crystal for the family cooking in their primitive earthern and stone vessels, fish and game for the mere sport of the hunter, and, last but not least, a safe retreat in times of trouble and defeat. For who but the nati\-e child of these vast forests would be able to thread its trackless wastes and trei'.cherous river bottoms with safety and with disp.itch ? And the warlike Sauks no doubt knew the defensive value of river fords and s;tnd ridge, of wood and plain. 'l"he Romans of the Old World sallied forth from their strong city to conquer the world, confident of a safe retreat in times of disaster and tempor;iry defeat, and of quite a similar character are the annals of these earliest known inhabitants of this gem of the Great Lakes. Certain it is that the Sauks held a foremost place among the Indians of their day. Indian traditions are replete with the recital of their warlike deeds, e\-en centuries after the tril)e was wiped from the face of the earth by a combination of weaker tribes inhabiting other portions of the lake regions, who disliked the domination of the Sauks, and probablv coveted their rich hunting grounds. Flardlv half a century has passed, since this beautiful valley was indeed a happy hunting ground. lUiffalo, elk, moose and deer roamed at will through the prairie-bound forests. Black and brown bears, wolves, panthers, wild cats and other wild beasts infested the wilderness, ferocious foes of almost equally ferocious aborigines. E\'en to this day most of these animals are to be found in the thinly settled portions of this section of Michigan. What wonder tlien, that the Sauks waxed strong, and that with all the fiery instincts of their savage souls they enjoyed a fight, and spoiled for lust of blood and conquest !

The earliest annals of Bay County tell of the Indian traditions of the Sauks, as they were handed down from generation to generation, an inspiration for young warriors, and a song of victory for the sages of the tribes, who on the verv site of Greater Bay Citv extermi- nated, in a desperate two-days Ijattle, the last remnants of the once powerful trihe of Sauks. Jean Nicollet, believed to be the first white man to have visited the harbor of what is now Bay City, in his explorations of the western and northern shores of Lake Huron in 1634 speaks of the land of the Sauks in his official report to Go\-ernnr Champlain of New I'rance. He was hospitably received by the Indians, after interpreters he had with him had overcome their fears, for he was the first white man most of them had seen. The next authentic report of the land of the Sauks is found in the annals of Pere Marquette and Pere Dablon, who about 1668 were exploring the western shore of Lake Huron, anil the latter tells of a council with the natives on a great river, undoubtedly the Saginaw, which for a time was thought to be connected with the Mississippi River. This river flowed through the center of the land of the Sauks, which is described as extending from the western shore of Lake Huron to the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, and from Mackinaw in the north to the land of the Shiawassees in the south. The Indians then inhabiting this vast region were easily won over by the earnest and devoted missionaries.

One must have read that immortal epic poem of Longfellow, to appreciate the beautiful story of the earliest meetings of the pale faces and red men on tlie shores of the Great Lakes, to picture in one's mind the weird scene of an Indian camp-fire in the wilderness, the wigwams of the chiefs, the shore lined with birch canoes, so necessary for the inhabitants of these regions, the solemn warriors smoking the pipe of peace with the strangers they called "brtjthers," the eloquent address of Father Maniuette, with a world-redeeming message, alas, so little understood by these children of the forest, whose one all-absorbing commandment for ages had been the old Hebraic dictum: "An eye for .\N eye; and a tooth FOR ,\ TOOTH." What a pity that the spirit of Pere Marquette did not always pervade the intercourse of the two races in these fair regions!

.As no i)ermanent mission was established south of Mackinaw, we can know but little that is authentic of these first meetings here, of Indians and explorers or missionaries. Undoubtedly the cross and lilies of France were duly raised over this rich valley, as they were all along the shores of Lake Huron. It was rare indeed in the rush of events of the closing years of the 19th century that a triljute was paid to the memory of the devoted men who opened to civilization wide reaches of fertile but unknown regions. Such a worthy tribute has been paid to the peer of all these e.xplorers of the trackless Northwest, in naming one of the great highways of commerce, that traverse the vast region he was the first to really explore, the Pere Marquette Railroad, in honor of Father Marquette.

Almost two centuries had elapsed since the discovery of this country ere the first white explorers penetrated to this secluded spot, and even then they were satisfied with tracing the general courses of rivers and the trend of the coasts of the Great Lakes. This done, there comes another long period, during which the copper-colored children of the woods ruled supreme over their beloved hunting grounds. And it is the recital of their primitive e.xistence, their feuds and wars, their hunts and expeditions, their religion and traditions, that lend to the annals of Bay County their roman- tic interest. Residents of this county and State annually travel thousands of miles to visit some romantic spot of the Old World and an earlier civilization. Few realize the wealth of legendary and historic narratives, that find their scenes on the shores of Saginaw bay and river.

This chapter on the Indians who once inhabited these hunting grounds would not be complete without a passing reference to the race in general. Columbus thought he had discovered the Indies of Asia when he sailed to the West Indies in 1492, hence the inhabitants of the New World were called "Indians." Diligent research on the history and migrations of the primitive races of the world has failed to reveal the origin of this coppercolored race. To the red man of this Western Continent the chase was everything, and the illimitable hunting grounds, forest and prairie and stream, were the Indian's earthly paradise and the type of his heavenly home hereafter.

The American aborigines belonged to several distinct families or nations, and the tribe of Hurons which inhabited Michigan at the time of Father Marquette's exploration belonged to the Algonquin nation, which at that time was estimated to number 250,000 souls. They were nomadic in their habits, roaming from one hunting ground to another, according to the exigencies of fishing and the chase. Agriculture was but little esteemed. The Algonquins were divided into many subordinate tribes, each having its local name, dialect and traditions.

Of all the Indian nations, the Algonquins suffered most from contact with the white men. Wasting diseases destroyed whole tribes, and are to-day taking off the pitiable remnants of a once proud and powerful race. Before the aggressive spirit of the pale faces, before his fiery rum and his destructive weapons, the race has withered to a shadow, and only a few thousand remain to rehearse the story of their ancestors.

Personal independence, a willfulness of action and freedom from all restraint, were their most striking characteristics, as their local traditions clearly prove. The authority of the chief extended no further than to be foremost in battle and most cunning in savage strategy. No man gave him his authority, and no man tookitawa3^ In the solemn debates of the council, where the red orators pronounced wild harangues to groups of motionless listeners, only questions of expediency were decided. The painted sachems never thought of imposing on the unwilling minority the decision which had Ijcen reached in council.

War was the all-absorbing passion of the red men. Revenge was considered the noblest of virtues, and hence all their interminable wars were undertaken to redress some grievance, real or imaginary, and never for conquest. The fight in the open, like the combats of the legions of the Old World, was unknown in Indian warfare. Their military strategy consisted of cunning and treachery, and their fighting was limited to surprise, ambuscade, and massacre. The vanquished seldom asked for mercy and never received it. Barbarous captivity, ransom, or burning at the stake were the lot of prisoners captured in war, and the diabolical ferocity of the savage warrior's nature invented ever new tortures.

Confederations formed at times among the tribes, when some emergencies demanded them, seldom out!i\-ed the great sachems aaIio had formed them. In times of peace the red man was unsocial, solitary, a gloomy spirit of the woods. The wide forest was to him better than his wigwam, and his wigwam better than the villap:e. The Indian woman was a degraded creature, a drudge, the beast of burden for the lodge, and the social principle was correspondingly low. In matters of re- Hgion, the Indians were a superstitious race, but seldom idolaters. They believed in a Great Spirit, everywhere present, ruling the elements, showing favor to the brave and obedient and punishing the sinful. They called Him the Great Alanitou. They worshiped, but never built any temples. They also believed in many sulxjrdinate spirits, some evil and some good, and their medicine men after fasting and prayer made revelations of this spirit world. The religious ceremonies of the Hurons were performed with great earnestness and solemn formality, and one of their favorite meeting grounds for centuries was on the western bank of the Saginaw River, about three miles from its mouth.

In the matter of arts the Indians were barbarians. Their houses were wigwams or hovels. Some poles set up in a circle, converging at the top, covered with skins and the branches of trees, lined and sometimes floored with mats made by the women, a fire in the center, a low opening opposite a point from which the wind blew - such was the aboriginal abode of our Indians, even as late as 1865, when one of the last great tribal councils was held on the outskirts of what was then the village of Wenona.

Indian utensils were few, rude and primitive. Poorly fashioned earthern ])ots, bags and pouches for carrying provisions, stone hammers for pounding parched corn, were the stock and store. A copper kettle was a priceless treasure. The warrior's chief implement was his hatchet of copper or stone, which he always carried. This hatchet was rarely free from the stain of blood. His bow and stonecapped arrow proved ample weapons for offense and defense. Old settlers still relate how

The Indian's clothing was a blanket thrown loosely over his shoulders, and fastened about the middle with leather thongs. The material for his moccasins and leggings was stripped from the red buck, elk or buffalo. Fangs of rattlesnakes, claAvs of hawks, feathers of eagles, bones of animals, and even the scalps of enemies he killed, were hung alx)ut his person. He painted his face and body, especially when preparing for the war-dance, with all manner of fantastic and glaring colors.

Indian writing consisted only of rinaint hieroglyphics rudely scratched on the face of rocks or cut in the bark of trees. Pontiac, a great chief of this region, and thought by many to ha\e been the greatest man his race ever produced, was the only leader who ever had a commissary department among the tribes, with a system of making requisitions, by rudely drawing the article wanted upon a piece of hide, with his totem, the beaver, affixed. This requisition usually brought the desired article. But the artistic sense of the savage could rise no higher than a coarse necessity compelled the flight.

The dialects of the North American races have a resemblance among themselves, but have no analogy with the languages of other nations, unless it be with the monosyllables of the nomadic tribes of Central Asia. The Indian tongue had but few words, and abstract ideas rarely found expression. The Hurons of this vicinity had no word for "hunting," but one word signified "to-kill-a-deer-with-anarrow 1" There was no word for brother, but one word signified "elder brother" or "younger brother."

and sunken ; hair, black and straight ; beard, black and scant ; skin of a copper-colored, reddish-black or cinnamon hue ; high cheek bones ; forehead and skull variable in shape and proportions; hands and feet small; tody lithe but not strong; expression of the features more often sinister, than dig'nified or noble. Such Avas the Indian as the early settlers found him in these parts.

The Indian dance was a passion with them, but it was not the social dance of civilized nations, but rather the dance of ceremony, the dance of religion and of war. Sometimes the warriors danced alone, but frequently the women were accorded their one privilege, when they too would join the mystic circle, swinging round and round, chanting the weird, monotonous songs of their tribe.

The amusements of these children of the forest consisted of feats of daring, excellence in feats of strength, such as wrestling, shooting at a mark, running, jumping, racing in their swift canoes, playing at ball, and some gambling games with stones resembling dice, on which the passionate warrior would often hazard his entire possessions.

The pipe was the warrior's inseparable companion. The pioneers in these parts often saw them sitting and smoking for hours, apparently lost in a dream under the fascinating influence of their pipes. No race on earth has ever been so debased by strong drink.

The fire-water of the pale faces has done more to exterminate the Indians than all other agencies ! The amount .of spirits and liquor Poor Lo would absorb has only been limited by tlie amount he could secure. Such is a rough sketch of the aboriginal red man, who WAS rather than is !

Bay County's pioneers, but also by the settlements of remnants of once powerful tribes at Indiantown, near Kawkawlin, at Saganing, near Pinconning, and at Ouanicassee, just across our county's eastern border. Such is the logic of events that right or wrong, the weaker race has withered before the onward march of the Saxons. By the beloved ri\-ers and in the solitude of the great forests the restless sons of the West will soon be seen no more! One by one they bid farewell to the hunting grounds of their ancestors. Let our people do what in their power lies to brighten the days still remaining of earth to the survivors of the primitive race that once called this vast continent their very own. To-day little more than their names remain on lake and hill and stream, and even these in the rush of events we pass unnoticed by!

And yet what a wealth of anecdote and romance gather about the earliest inhabitants of this valley. A few of these personal reminiscences will be better understood and appreciated, since we have reviewed Indian character, life and habits.

\\'hat is known to-day of the great tribe of the Sauks, wdio have given the title to Saginaw bay, river and valley, is derived entirely from the traditions handed down among the Indians of this part of the State from generation to generation. About 1835 there lived in an Indian shack on the bay shore, on the site of what is now Tobico, an old Chippewa chief, named Put-ta-gua-sa-mine, over whose battlescarred head had passed more than 100 years - a wrinkled but acti\e human oak in the primeval wilderness. He was as active as the average man is at 50, and his faculties were undimmed. Since early youth he had been the historian of his tribe. Some 80 years before, his grandfather had told him the traditional story of his tribe, and the extermination of their bitterest foes, the Sauks. formed the most stirring chapter of his nation's legends. He had repeated it a thousand times around their campfires, tepees and councils, lest the braves of the nation should forget the glorious deeds of their ancestors, and their traditions and history be lost forever. He had appointed Nau-qua-chica-me as his successor, and verified his historic tales by the other old Indians of his tribe living in that vicinity. The late Judge Albert Miller, \\'illiam R. McCormick, James Eraser, John Riley. Joseph Trombley, his brother IMedor Trombley, two uncles of theirs, - Cassette Trombley and Leon Trombley, - James M. McCormick, Benjamin Cushway, and others of the early pioneers, often heard the Indian's recital, and no record of this vicinity would be complete without this, the most ghastly incident of the aborigines' traditions. The old warrior could repeat the tale a hundred times and not vary a hairl)readth in his recital.

The Sauks' main village lay on the ridge extending along the west bank of the river for about five miles from the bay. \\'hile the In- <lians roamed at will over all the Southern Peninsula of Michigan, still their favorite hunting ground was in this valley. Here it was they assembled for their tribe councils, their sundances, their feasts and their games. This village was nc\cr (piite deserted. The old and infirm, the sick and wounded invariably came and lived here, for it offered every facility for their simple lives. Sometimes defeated in battle against distant tribes, the Sauks invariably rallied to the defense of this valley, and no foe ever passed its outer defenses and lived. Erom this stronghold they sallied forth to fight their Chippewa neighbors on the north, the Pottawatomies of Southern Michigan, and they even carried war against the Ottawas in Canada, until those troubled tribes could bear their aggressions no longer.

Some three centuries ago these three tribes called in the Menominees and Dakotahs of the West, and parts of the Si.x Nations of New York somewhere near where Port Huron is now located, and it was decided to destroy the Sauks and make their lands a general hunting ground for all these tribes.

Early the following spring the warriors of these several tribes assembled at Mackinaw, while another force was gathered on the eastern shore of Lake St. Clair. When all was in readiness, the Mackinaw confederates started down Lake Huron in bark canoes, the most imposing flotilla undoubtedly that sailed these lakes until Commodore Perry met and vanquished the English fleet at Put-in-Bay nearly three centuries later, for it was rare indeed that these feudal tribes ever acted together. -

.Apparently the Sauks knew nothing of the conspiracy, and with the breaking of a hard winter they had scattered to their several haunts, the largest number apparently remaining in this valley. Their enemies, true to their savage natures, planned to surprise this village. The fleet of canoes loaded with the dusky warriors stole along the west shore of Saginaw Bay, lay concealed in the wilderness near Tobico during the day and the ne.xt night divided to attack both sides of the Saginaw River at davbreak.

The Sauks slept in fancied security, little dreaming what a horrible death awaited them. With the first streak of gray across the dense forest, the savage horde broke from the woods near where the lower wards of the West Side are now located, and began a ruthless massacre. The Sauks living further up stream, hearing the whoops of the enemy, tried vainly to stop the latter's victorious rush. Finding themselves outnumbered, they slowly retreated, fighting every foot of the way, and finally sought refuge on the East Sitle, where the

This was just what their wily enemies had foreseen, for now the second force of confederates canie rushing out of the forest that stretched from the bay for miles and miles to the south. On the ridge south of Lafayette avenue, the Sauks made a desperate stand, and a number of mounds have been uncovered where skulls and skeletons, thrown indiscriminately together, attest that hundreds fought and died here, and were buried in common graves.

Those that survived this slaughter retreated to the little island south of Stone Island, which they quickly fortified. The attacking force had left their canoes on the bay shore, but even the elements conspired against the doomed tribe of Sauks. A cold wave, so peculiar to this lake region, swept down from the nortli that night, covering the narrow arm of the river with ice, over which at the break of another day the merciless enemy charged, and completed the massacre. For ages after, numberless skulls lay scattered and buried on this fateful spot, which has ever since been called Skull Island. The tradition of the Chippewas recounts that 12 of the bravest Sauks, with their families, were saved from this final slaughter, as trophies of the great victory.

The force on the St. Clair now advanced up the Shiawassee and Flint rivers, where they joined forces with the victorious warriors from the Saginaw valley, and the other tribes of the Sauk nation were hunted to their death. On the Cass. Tittabawassee, Shiawassee and Flint rivers, the same bloody drama was renewed. Great battles were fought near the sites of the present cities of Flint and Flushing, where to this day mass graves of warriors are unearthed. The crushed skulls, the mark of the deadly tomahawk, arrow and battle-axe, show plainly that

A few escaped the massacre on the Saginaw, and the scattered tribes were undoubtedly warned on their more southern hunting grounds. But the confederates were all about them, and escape was impossible. Realizing that death was inevitable, the Sauks showed that at least they could die bravely, and some of the weird war-chants of the Indians of the lake region still recite the heroic deeds of the doomed race. W'arriors, women and even children joined in the fight, and while their race was practically exterminated in the course of several weeks of fighting, the fugitives being hunted d(5wn like wild beasts by their infuriated enemies, still the victory was dearly bought.

When the man hunt through Lower ]\Iichigan had been completed and the confederates had assembled in council on the very site of Bay City, they had wearied of the slaughter, and the captives, kept for torture more terrible than any death in battle, were spared, and by mutual agreement sent west of the Mississippi, where the Sioux tribes took them under their protection in recognition of their heroic fight in the face of overwhelming odds. The rich hunting and fishing grounds, the main cause of the massacre, were thrown open for the common use of the tribes that had taken part in the expedition.

In 1823, Major Long, of the United States Army, found the survivors of the Sauks on the St. Peters River, evidently descendants of the 12 families that were banished to the far West. In his official report, regarding their original haunts, he says, that these Sauks had a tradition that they did not always live in those parts, but that their ancestors lived on Saginaw Bay and Lake Huron, where tlie Great Spirit liad created them, and given them wonderful liunting grounds until their trihe sinned against Manitou the Great, and were by the evil spirits driven from their happy lumting grounds.

In their far Western reservation, the Indian tril)e wliicli gave its name to the great hay. river and valley, in the very heart of has dwindled to a mere shadow, and. according to the last report of the Indian commissioner, will soon he totally extinct.

Their conquerors have fared but little better, and their dearly tought victory was almost barren of results. For hardly had the allied Indian tribes decided to keep the conquered territory along the shores of the Saginaw as a common hunting ground, before the superstitious Indian found that the spirits of the slaughtered Sauks haunted the valley, for many Indians who came to hunt and fish in these parts were never more heard of. Quite likely a few Sauks escaped the massacre, too few for open war, and that they took bloody revenge on all their enemies who came to the shores of Saginaw Bay. The neighboring creeks, the trackless forest and the wide reaches (if the bay ofifered a safe shelter to the fugitives and. knowing the country better than the wandering hunters, the skulking Sauks had the advantage over much superior numbers in that kind of savage warfare.

As late as 1840. a Chijjpcwa chief named Ton-dog-a-ne told William R, McCnrmick and other visiting traders, that he had himself killed a Sauk in an acidental meeting of hunting parties, while he was still quite young. I'ifty j'ears ago the Indians frequently ceased hunting, because they had seen a place in the woods where the spirit of a Sauk had built his camp-fire and slept. The early settlers laughed at the Indians' superstititious fears, but nothing could induce theiu to enter the wcods at such a tiiuc.

Another Indian tradition handed down by the Chippewa chief, Wa-sha-be-non, who lived to be nearly 100 years old, and who had heard it from his grandfather, told how this haunted hunting ground had been made a sort of penal colony to which every Indian who committed a criine under the Indian's crude code of laws was banished or to which he fled, rather than face the tortures and punishment inflicted by his tribe. To the average Indian this was the worst puiu'shment that could be inflicted, but the criminal colony undoubtedly soon found that it was not at all a bad place to camp, to hunt and to fish, for the colony increased and thrived despite the avenging spirits said to be hovering over "O-Sauk-e-non," the doomed "Land of the Sauks." The mixing of warriors from many tribes brought with it in time a mixed Indian dialect, in which the language of the Chippewas, as the most numerous, predominated.

The picturesque and romantic interest in this valley center about these red children of the forest, and their contact with the earliest white trappers, traders and settlers, and innumerable stories are told by these pioneers, a few of which will round out this chapter on the aI)origines, who once owned and lorded it over this valley.

The Hurons, to which race all of the tribes living about the Great Lakes belonged, were not very highly esteemed by the Indians of the East, the Six Nations. The French traveler and explorer, De Toc(|ucvi]lc, aljout the year 1830, started for the Wild West of those early days, the heart of IMichigan, and sought the services of an Indian guide at Buffalo. An old Mohawk warrior cautioned biiu to beware of the native Indians of Michigan, and particularly in the haunted regions of "O-Sauk-e-non."' The jjroud Mohawk called them a thievish race, vagatonds and skulkers, whom none could trust, and the members of the party were so impressed with his recital of their treacherous deeds in the War of the Revohition and W^ar of i8iJ. tliat an Ottawa warrior from Canada guided the party to the banks of Saginaw Bay, from where the savant made his scientific and geographical observations. He did not find the Indians of this region as bad as pictured. He 2a\e them credit for many virtues which the pale faces would do well to imitate, among them l)eing strict honesty. He found this virtue among all the tribes of the West, where they were not corrupted by intercourse with the pale faces. He found no bolts or bars in their habitations, and cites many instances of their integrity. An Indian was given a handful of tobacco, and in his tepee found a quarter of a dollar among the leaves. Early next morning he hurried to the donor and handed back the money. Being told that inasmuch as it had been given to him, he might as well have kept it. the Indian pointed to his breast and said : "I got a good man and a bad man here ; the good man say it is not mine, and I must return it ; the bad man say, he gave it to you and it is your own now ; the good man say, that is not right, the tobacco is yours, but not the money ; the bad man say, ne\'er mind, you got the money, go buy some drink ; the good man say, you must not do so, and I don't know what to do, and think to sleep over it, but the good man and the bad man talk all night and trouble me much ; so now I bring the money back, and feel \ery. very good again." Of the Chippewa chief, Put-ta-gua-sa-mine. he wrote the following : "At a visit to his shack on the great bay of Saginaw, while the pipe of peace was going the rounds, I told him that I was pleased he did not drink the firewater of the white men, but that it grieved me to find his people drank so much of it. The Indian sage replied promptly : 'Ah, Uh,' with a suggestive gesture, 'we Indians use a great deal of whiskey, but WE do not m.\ke it.' " This was a very pert Indian version of the scripture quotation : "He that delivereth it unto thee hath the greater sin."

The home relations of the red men have e\'er been the subject of interesting study, and the savants who early visited these parts gave vastly different views of the life of the aborigines during the first 30 years of the 19th century. Polygamy was not uncommon among the Hurons, the more influential chiefs usually having several w'ives. A missionary named Catlin made a study of the Indian tribes of Michigan, and he found that, like the trilies of the East, the drudgery of the family devolved entirely on the women. The women carried the baggage on the marcii, and erected the tepee \\hen a camping ground was reached. The women gathered the fuel, started the camp-fire, cooked the simple meal and patiently served the lord of the household, who disdained all work, as fit only for pale faces and women. Even the little patch of corn was cultivated by the women. The warriors followed the chase or tiie war-path, leaving all domestic and agricultural cares to the women. For untold ages this had been the life of the red men, and when the white men invaded their hunting grounds, and compelled the Indian to till the ground, when he ceased to be a hunter and became a farmer, his whole existence was changed, and many people attribute the gradual extinction of the Indians to a pining away of the race for the wild and unfettered hunter's life of their ancestors.

\\'hilc the Indian women were shown but little tenderness by the stoical warriors, and their miserable and degraded life was one incessant round of labor and care, there were man}- instances of touching devotion among the Hurons. A story is told of a dying Indian woman. \\ho expressed a great desire for a mess of com. A famine in these parts made the gratification of her wish seemingly impossil)le, but her devoted husband lost no time. Through the almost untrodden wilderness he hurried to the settlement at Detroit, more than loo miles away, told his troubles to a German pioneer, secured enough corn to fill his lilanket, and immediately started back home with his load. The last few days of earth for his stricken squaw were cheered by the food secured under such trying circumstances.

While the pioneers found much that was laudable, and still more that was ridiculous and condemnable in the daily life of the red men. the children of the forest also found much subject for hilarity on the other side. In a council of the early pioneers, government agents. surveyors and trappers, with the Chippewas on the shore of Saginaw Bay, an aged chief reminded the white men that the Indians had not only a surer way of getting a wife than the pale faces, but that an Indian was also more certain of getting one eventually to his liking. Through a French interpreter his argument was given something like this: "White man court and court, maybe one whole year, maybe two year, before he marry. \\'ell. maybe he get good wife, maybe no! ]\Iaybe her very cross, scold so soon as he wake in the morning, scold all day, scold all night! .\11 the same he must keep her! White man's law say he must keep her! Well, how do Indians do? Indian sees good, industrious squaw, he goes to her. places two forefingers close beside each other, make two look like one, look squaw straight in face, see her smile, and take her home ! No danger her be cross, no, no ! Squaw knows he throw her away if she be cross, and take another ! Squaw love to eat meat. No husband, no meat ! Squaw do everything to please

The Indians never chastised their children, thinking that it would damp their spirits, check their love of independence, and cool their martial ardor, all of which the parents wished to encourage. Reason will guide our children, when they come to the use of it, argued the wise men of the tribe, and before that their faults cannot be \ery great. Boys were given uncontrolled freedom. Respect for their father and old age were alone inculcated into their young hearts. Among their own it was a great crime to steal or tell a lie, but to an enemy, and every pale face was long treated as a hereditary enemy, it was right to do so, for they must be injured wherever possible. The warriors endeavored by example to train the youth to diligence in hunting and fishing, and to animate them with patience, courage and fortitude in war, as well as to inspire them with contempt of danger and pain and to court death, which among the Hurons were qualities alone worth possessing. \\'lien a famous chief became too old to indulge in the chase, or to go on the war-path, he devoted his time to exhorting the youths of his trilje. In glowing phrases he would recount the great deeds of their tribe. Daily the children gathered about these aged chiefs among the tepees on the Saginaw, and DeTocqueville recites how they urged the young men to lie brave and cunning in war. and to defend their hunting grounds against all encroachments. "Never suft'er your squaws or little ones to want, and at all times protect them from insult and from danger. Respect the aged. Never betray a friend. Be revenged on your enemies. Drink not the poisonous strong water of the i)ale faces, for it is sent by the bad spirit to destroy our race." Alas ! Too few heeded this last appeal, and pathetically it is written :

For plagues do spread, and funeral fires increase, None can the wrath of the Alanitou the Great appease Since to the poisoned waters of the paleface, all are slaves !

The sage ciiief counseled them to fear not death, for none but cowartls really die. "The brave warrior goes to the happy hunting" grounds, the coward becomes a tortured spirit before Manitou the Great. Love and adore the Good Spirit, who made us all. who supplies our hunting grounds, and keeps all alive." Then with hands and e^'es uplifted toward heaven, he would recount his deeds in war and peace, and thank the Great Spirit for keeping him so long in health and strength. "Yet like a decayed prairie tree do I now stand alone among you. The friends of my youth, the companions of my sports, my toils and my dangers, rest their heads on the bosom of our mother earth. My sun is fast setting behind the Western hills, and I feel it will soon be night with me. But you will soon be men, then must you prove worthy of your forefathers!"

While the Ottawas and other tribes worshipped the sun, the Hurons were content to erect at odd intervals in their midst some hideous idol, which they adored as their talisman, until seme defeat in war, a famine or other mishap to the tribe, appeared to indicate that the potency of their little ISIanitou was no longer a saving grace. About 1840 some missionaries held a church service on the west shore of the Saginaw River, two miles from its mouth. Trappers, hunters, fishermen and traders came together for miles around to hear once again a service so rare in the wilderness. A few Huron Indians stood outside of the circle of worshipers, speculating on the trend of the strange festival before them. They presumed the white men were asking for something, and the guileless children of the forest wondered if they were getting their loudly expressed wishes fulfilled by their IManitou. As the missionaries exhorted for an hour, and more, the Hurons concluded they were not getting much encouragement from on high. They marveled at the perseverance and elocjuence with which this appeal to Manitou was pressed. When the pale faces joined in singing a plaintive hymn, one savage was heard remarking to the other : "Hear them now in despair, crying with all their might !"

A good story is told of the first territorial Governor - Stevens T. INIason. A number of workingmen were erecting a warehouse for the Governor on a cold fall day, and among the idlers looking on was a Huron warrior, in the scanty attire of his tribe. "Hark ye, friend," said the Governor to the brave, "why don't you work like these men, and get decent clothes to cover you?" "Why you no work. Governor?" replied the Huron. "I work with my head," said the Governor, "and therefore need not work with my hands. You go kill a deer for me, and I will give you a shilling." The Indian ere long brought the carcass of a good-sized buck. The Governor asked him why he did not skin it? "Deer am dead, give me my shilling. Governor. Give me another shilling and I will skin it for you," which was done, l>ut the Governor plotted to get even. Some time after^ the Governor wanted a message taken to the Governor at Toledo, and he hired the same Indian to deliver it, I)ut as the Indian demanded an exhorbitant messenger fee. Mason asked the brother official to chastise the red rascal. On the way this Indian met one of Governor Mason's regular employees, and by claiming that the Governor told him to give the letter to the Governor's old trusty, the latter was induced to deliver the letter to the Toledo disciplinarian, and got soundly thrashed for his pains. Governor Mason was very wrathy when he heard his trusty's report, but the sav- age had vanished into the interior. At a council held in 1836, preparatory to the ceding of 40,000 acres of the Chippewas' reserve to the United States, Governor Alason found Chief Ma-sha-\vay occupying a prominent place among his nation. When asked why he had played such tricks on the Governor, he merely pointed to his forehead, saying: "Headwork, Governor, headwork !" The pioneers enjoyed many a laugh over the recital of the Governor's discomfiture.

DeTocqueville found that the majority of the tepees or wigwams along the Saginaw shore consisted of a few poles driven into tlie ground with a few mats thrown o\'er them. In this far Northern latitude a good camp-fire was their substitute for warm bed clothes. In the dead of winter they often encountered famines, when a handful of meal and a bit of water was their only food for days at a time. Equally startling is his recital of the practices of their medicine men. A cave in the side of a sandhill was given a white heat, when those suffering from rheumatism and similar diseases entered the liot bath, and amid the steam and smoke looked like fiends infernal. After many incantations, the medicine men and the sick rush out of the inferno, straight into the ice-cold river. Tiiis must have been on the princi])le of "kill or cure," although numerous cures were actually effected by this drastic treatment.

The Indians of the valley enjoyed hunting, and did not follow their game merely for the sake of the venison. The Hurons loved the adventure and excitement of the chase and for their great tribal hunts they prepared by fasting, dreaming and other superstitious observances. A certain district which was to [)e hunted over was encircled, and the game driven to a common center, where it was killed in the primitive manner of the aborigines, for few firearms had found tlicir wav into this secluded nook of the Northwest. In the early fall or early spring the Indians sometimes chased the game out on thin ice, when it was easily secured. Deer were much sought after for their hides and venison, but the trappers early taught the Indians of this vicinity the value of the beaver skins, and the Chippewas and kindred tribes of Huron extraction were far-famed hunters and trappers. They secured the beavers by placing themselves on the cut dike, which enclosed the busy beaver village, and when the beavers ran out to see why their water was running out, they were easily captured. In winter a hole was made in the ice, to which the beavers would come to breathe, only to be snatched by the remorseless hunters. A bear was never attacked by the Indians singlehanded, if they could avoid a fight. Their tomahawks and stone or flint battle-axes made little impression on a fighting bear, and the warriors respected his prowess, and sang of it, as they did of the industry and intelligence of the beavers. Dogs were the only domestic animals found among the Hurons, and they were not well treated, being left to find their own food, and proving a nuisance to missionaries and travelers, but they were invalualile to the red man in the chase.

The Chippewas never ate their victuals raw, but rather overboiled them, and for a long time they had no use for salt, pepper or other condiment. An Indian chief, being invited by some trappers to a feast in the wilderness, saw them use some mustard, and out of curiosity put a spoonful into his mouth. The result can be imagined. Wishing to escape ridicule, he made desperate efforts to conceal his torture, but violent sneezing and tears streaming from his eyes told their own story. His hosts explained how mustard should be used, but the brave never after touched the "boiling yellow," as he called it. The Chippewas apparently had cast-iron constitutions and capacious stomachs. They were known to hve without food for many days, and seemingly did not suffer for it. On the otiier hand they would sit down to a feast, and prove regular gluttons, it being a rule with them to never leave anything on the table. All must be eaten, and the rule never troubled them much.

The remnant of Sauks in the Far West appear to have been more civilized than the Chippewas of Michigan, who drove them from this valley. Dr. Carver, for instance, found the Sauks" houses built of well-cut and well-fitted planks, with cozy rooms, while their concjuerors in "O-Sauk-e-non" still lived in shabby shacks or shabbier tepees.

The war and ceremonial dances of the Indians living within the confines of what is now Bay County varied little from those of all other Western tribes. Usually some 40 or 50 warriors, and at times as many more sc]uaws, would execute one of their fantastic dances about a huge fire. With their monotonous chant, a violent stamping of the feet, and peculiar contortions of the body and arms, they kept time with the chant, broken now and then by ear-piercing shrieks, and demoniac howls. The war-dance and the medicine-dance were pantomimes, and more elaborate than the other Indian dances. De Tocqueville rather liked the calumet, or pipe of peace dance, and also ihe marriage dance, given when some chief of note took unto himself a wife. In the Chippewa medicine-dance, their medicine men used animals' heads and all other imaginable toggery to complete their grotesque and startling make-ups. These Indian dances were an event along the valley up to 40 years. ago, and whenever a dance was planned all the early settlers made an effort to be present. It broke the monotony of hard work and isolation for them, and while the Indian ceremonies were often shockingly suggestive, and in the later years made even more diabolical by the Indians taking strong liquors to stir up their passions, before and during the dances, still it was in the nature of a weird show, and gave the scattered settlers an opportunity to meet and greet one another. The early German settlers from Franken, in Bavaria, who created the township of Frankenlust out of the wilderness, and whose sons and daughters are to-day scattered all over the county, thriving farmers and business men and women, being very devout, looked on these Indian dances with horror. To them the dances were savage idolatry, and for years they esteemed it a grievous sin to even look at the medicine-dance! Many of the other pioneers to the valley came to trade with the Indians, and some of the more adventurous even dressed as the aborigines did, and took part in the dances. Well might a Longfellow sing:

Sliould j-ou ask where Nawadaha Found these dances wild and wayward. Found these legends and traditions, I should answer, I should tell you, "In the birds' nests of the forest, In the lodges of the beaver, In the hoof-prints of the bison, In the eyry of the eagle !

The Hurons were far-famed as orators, and the early settlers often listened for hours to Chief O-ge-ma-ke-ga-to and other great men of the tribes wandering about these parts recite the great deeds of their great warriors. They would tell of hunting with Tecumseh, and the old men of the tribe would grow eloquent in speaking of Pontiac, whom they had seen in all his splendor as a leader and orator. Their traditions tell us of his visit to the wigwams on the Saginaw, where he met in council the chiefs of the Chippewas, Dakotalis and 01)ji1)\vas, on liis mission of arousing all these scattered trihes for one concerted effort against the pale faces, who were slowly Init surely dispossessing his race of their favorite hunting grounds. He could not stop the onward march of civilization, great as was his native genius and ability, but he did stir the hearts of the red men. as they had ne\-er been stirred before or since. His race has no written records, and the recital of his daring, eloquence and generalship is now but a tradition among the old men of the tribes he led. His deeds have been but charily commemorated by the historians of an inimical but stronger race. Of Pontiac the old chiefs were wont to tell, how he told the emissaries of the King of England, that he would c:dl him "uncle" but never "king." Pontiac. too, realized the advantages of this distant valley and, if we are to believe the traditions of his descendants, he frequently hunted in these par's. Certain it is, that the valley was a favorite camping ground of the Indians. Along the shores of the Kawkawlin and the other tributaries of bay and river, from the time of the first pale face explorer to the present day, are found the mounds where sleep all that was mortal of these children of the forest and jirairie. In some of them are found to this day the weapons, wampum and other trinkets, that were placed with the dead for use on their journey to another and a happier hunting ground. The Indian collection of the Pioneer Society in the Capitol at Lansing owes some of its finest specimens to this valley. The mass graves found by the early seitlers spoke of death in battle and death in pestilence, for smallpox and the plague often brought whole tribes to the verge of extinction. So great were the attractions and advantages of this valley to the red men, that for centuries it was considered the most thickly populated by the red men of Michigan.

Not even the superstitions about evil sjjirits dwelling in the dismal forest on the shores of Saginaw Bay could keep the natives away from a spot so blessed with all that went to make it an ideal place for human habitations, whether those habitations be the wigwams of untutored savages, or the palatial summer homes of 20th century captains of industry.

\\'hen, in 1849, Longfellow entertained at his home in Boston the famous Ojibwa chief, Kah-ge-ga-bowh, he heard much of this wonderful valley, and much of the traditions and legends so beautifully blended together in his immortal poems, "Evangeline" and "The Song of Hiawatha," centered about these beloved bunting grounds of the race his genius immortrdized. The Acadians driven from their homes find protection, food and profitable eniployment amid the hunting lodges of the Saginaw, although they are wanderers still and Evangeline seeks her Gabriel in vain on the banks of the Saginaw. He, too. is restless, seeking, hoping for that loving heart, that alas, was not to find him in this world, until his weary spirit was ready to soar to the spirit region, whence none return. And the pale faces who came in the middle of the 19th century, they, too, had heard this poet of the red men, and the enterprising colony on the west shore of the Saginaw River, which this very year, will become the West Side of Greater Bay City, was named "W'enonah" after the mother of Hiawatha, who gave her beautiful young life that liiawatha might live.

And the West-Wind came at evening, Walking lightly o'er the prairie, Whispering to the leaves and blossoms', Bending low the flowers and grasses, Found the beautiful Wenonah, Lying there among the lilies. Wooed her with his words of sweetness, Wooed her with his soft caresses. Till she bore a "aon in sorrow,

Thus was born my Hiawatha, Thus was born the child of wonder; But the daughter of Nokomis, Hiawatha's gentle mother, In her anguish died deserted By the West-Wind, false, and faithless, r>y the heartless IMudjekeewis.

Through the forest, wild and wailing, Roamed the hunter on his snow-shoes ; In the village worked the women. Pounded maize, or dressed the deer-skin ; And the young men played together On the ice the noisy ball-play.

Passing from the enchanted reahn of the poet and seer to tlie ever present, grim reality, we find that the Indians were very numerous here when the first permanent settlers arrived, being variously estimated at from 2.500 to 5,000. As late as 1865 they numberetl about 2,000, but after the tribe ceded its last reservation of 40,000 acres to the govermnent, many of the Indian families removed to the agency at Isabella, and the Indian settlements at Saganing, Indiantown, and Ouanicassee. Very reluctantly they gave up the arms of the huntsman, and took up the plow and the harrow. While some are very industrious and even successful as up-to-date agriculturists, the majority eke out a miserable existence in shacks but little better than their ancestors useil centuries ago. Intercourse with the white race, their changed lives, occupation and surroundings have robbed them of that robust physique and fiery spirit, which in past generations made a smoke-filled w igwam a palace for the hardy aborigine, and at all times preferable to the confinement of a white man's stone mansion. Broken in health, they are also broken in spirit. Little of romance clusters about the poorly clad, frail survivors of a once powerful race, who still live within this county. There is little about their poverty-stricken shacks that would induce one to call them, as of old, the noble red men ! Time, exposure, and contamination with all that is most degrading and injurious in our own boasted ci\'ilization, are slowly but surely wiping out the last remnants of the nation of Hurons and the tribe of Chippewas.

But lately, the community was shocked at the recital of a local Indian on a rampage. l""illed with liquor, he terrorized a West Side resort witli a vicious looking knife. A 1)urly guardian of the peace stepped in, and the drinkcrazed brave was easily landed in limbo, where next morning he begged meekly enough to be allowed to go to his shack on the Kawkawlin, where every cent he so recklessly squandered would have meant so ver.}', very much to his helpless family. A week later we read, with pitying interest, of the pangs of hunger, of cold and privation in another such shack, where a poor Indian woman lies in the last throes of consumption, getting only such care and nourishment as the poor authorities of Bangor township can provide. Alas ! How the once mighty race has fallen! But let us draw a veil over the grim scene! Let us as a strong and prosperous people, however, never forget that after all they were the original owners of all this vast territory, and that they received little enough, when they were dispossessed. Let us accord them in their declining days sometliing better than the crumbs that fall from our municipal table in alms and charities. They, too, are a twig from Adam's tree ; they, too, have souls. And they, perhaps more than all other living persons within the confines of prosperous Bay County, should merit our sympathy, our encouragement, and substantial remembrance. Thousands of dollars are annually sent from this part of Michigan to the yellow races in Asia., and the black races of Africa, for missionary effort, while a dying race of red men, at our very doors, to whom we really owe something, appear to be entirely forgotten. They have a smacking of our civilization, it is true, and most of them profess the God of our fathers. Let us then treat them as brothers, aye, as brothers in need, and accord them every encouragement in our power. Then when the sun shall have set on the last of the Hurons, we may have no vain regrets. For the blood and the bitterness of the past, where the rival races met, we of to-day are not accountable! But we are responsible for these children of this Western Hemisphere, in this, our day and generation. Charity begins at home, and what heart-beat of our people is there to-day. that does not go out in sympathy and kindness to the poor, suffering and dying remnants of the American Indians at our very doors! Let justice be mingled with mercv and love, that the dying race may know and feel, that the pale faces are not forgetful e\en of the least of Adam's twigs within their borders! Let us make their last days on earth more cheerful, less painful, by the collective assistance and good cheer of our industrious, progressive, prosperous and Christian community, built upon the shores that not so very long ago were the undisturbed hunting grounds of Poor Lo!